Internal-combustion engine



June 22 1 926.

H. T. HERR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed April 12-. 1921 HTIfcrf INVENTOR ATTORNEY 45 6 to 10 pounds 50 This result is attaine ama, 22, 1926. a ,x 1.589.391 UNITED STATES PATENT 1 OFFICE.

Hansen '1'. man, or minIoN, PENNSYLVANIA, nssr'oNon ro wns'rmenousn annornrc AND mNUrao'runrNe comm, a oonronarIoN or rEN sYLvANIA.

v iN'rnn moonnusrron nNerNn. Application filed April 18, 1981. Serial Io. 460,803.

the chamber, so .that the momentary rush of high Ipressure gases occurring at the opening of t e exhaust ports is diffused throughout the chamber with no considerable rise of pressure therein. 7

.A considerable reduction inthe energy required to evacuate the gases is efiected by causin the gases tobe cooled while passing. throug the chamber, thus reducing the specificvolume of the gases. Moreover the heat withdrawn from the gases is, avaiiable for the generation of a motive fluid which may be used to rate the evacuating mech- 'anism or for ot er purposes. a

A further economy in operation may be 70 attained, especially where an abundant supply of water is available, as in marine installations, by employing water as an entraining medium for evacuating the burned gases. For this purpose an entrainment 75 pump of any well known type, as the ejector puiiip or the fluid piston pump may beutilize Referring to the drawing for a. more detailed understanding of 'my invention,' a two-cycle internal combustion engine is in-' dicated at 10, which comprises a cylinderll, a head'12," a piston 13, piston oontrolled air inlet ports 1d and exhaustports 15.

The-exhaust gases from the ports 15 are; conducted by a manifold 20 into achamber 21. The chamber 21 may be of any suitable My invention relates to internal combustion engines and has for an object the provision of a novel and eflicient method and apparatus which shall employ air at atmos-' sheric pressure ;for scavenging the cyliners of an internal combustion engine and, in which the burned gases, after being treated to, reduce their temperature and specific volume, are withdrawn by entrainment in a stream of water mdving at a high velocity.

A further object of my invention is to provide, in connection with .the construction vabove designated, a novel and eflicient apparatus for the treatment of the exhausted 15. gases in which the heat of the gases is utilized to. generate a motive fluid and in which provision ismade for supplying an auxiliary source of heat for the further. generation of the motive fluid.

j These and other objects. which will be made manifest throughout the Father description of my invention, are attained'b means of apparatus described herein and lustrated' in the accompanying drawing in whicha g V Figure 1 is a view, partially in section and partially in elevation, of an internal 'com ustion engine equipped with a mechanism embodying my invention, and

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view of a modified form ofan ejector ada ted for employment with the apparatus i ustrated' in Figure 1. I construction and should preferably have a Low pressure, or suh-atmosphenc v.exlarge gas space and means for eflecting a 5 haust systems of scavenging internal comtransfer of heat from the exhausted ses' W to a cooling medium. As shown, the c am- 1 ber'21 comprises a cylindrical body portion 22 enclosing end members 23, 24 tube sheets 25, 26 secured to the cylindricalportion 22 and'tubes 27 extending between the tube sheets and aflixed thereto-in any suitable manner. A motive fluid discharge pipe 28 communicates with s ace between t etube sheets. The manifol 20 referably enters tween the air inlet ports the end member 23 central y thereof, and a 1 and the exhaust ports of the engine cylindischarge pipe 29 leads from thecentral der. This necessitates the maintenance of portion of the end member 24 to anevacuatf a vacuum of from 5-to 9 pounds absolute 1n device 30. I within the exhaust .passa es of the engine. e evacuating dev ce 30 -1s constructed in my novel'conto employwater -a's an entraiinn% fluid. "In struction by the interposition between the the' drawin'g, an. installation .a aptedfor exhaust ports and the evacuatingdevice of marine use is shown, the water being taken a chamber of considerable capacity. The from the sea through a pipe 31.wh1ch exevacuating device operating continuously, tends through the sid 32 of the vessel. The

bustion engines of the two-cycle type have thedistinct advantage of performing the scavenging operation satisfactorily and at the same time of operating independently 40 of the moving parts of the eng ne. The

effectiveness of a low pressure exhaust apparatus, however, depends largely upon the I ability of the device to maintain economical ly'the necessary gessure difierence of from maintains a, high degree of vacuum within water is led to a centrifugal pump 33 of the "9 usual construction and thence discharged at a high velocity through a pipe 34 and a nozzle 35into an entrainin chamber 36 of the evacuating device 30. The water and entrained gases are directed into a diffuser 37 and discharged overboard through a port 38. It is to. be understood, however, that the evacuation device is not limited to use in connection with marine power plants and that the water for entraining the burned gases may be taken from any suitable source and the discharge carried away in any convenient manner.

Power for drivingthe centrifugal water pump may be preferably supplied from the chamber 21. I have a illustrated a branch pipe 40 leading from the steam ofi-take 28 to a suitable turbine 41. Theturbine 41 and pump may be mounted upon the same shaft 42 or a suitable reduction gearing may be interposed between them.

Provision is further made for power in the generator 21 by providing an auxiliary heating means, whic may be of a type in which a self-combustible gas mixgenerating ture is sup lied to a burner 44 through a pipe 45. T is construction enables pressure fluid to be withdrawn from the generator for power purposes when the'internal combustion engine is idle. I

The operation of the apparatus is apparent from the above description. In brief, the exhaust device 30 operates continuouslyto provide a high degreeof vacuum within the chamber 21. The exhaust gases from the engine 10 discharge through the ports 15 and manifold 20 mto the chamber 21, the gases at the first o ening of the ort 15 having a considerab e pressure w ich is immediately reducedu on the gases entering the chamber 21, resulting in a low absolute pressure in the manifold 20. Durin the remainder of the period in which the ex aust ports are open, air at atmospheric pressure rushes in through the ports 14'and thoroughly sweeps the residue of burned gases into the manifold 20 and chamber 21, and also fills the cylinder with a fresh charge of air. The gases entering the chamber 21 are drawn at a high velocity through the tube 27 and their temperature and specific volume greatly reduced because of the heat transfer to the fluid surrounding the tubes. These cool and relatively dense burned gases are then evacuated by entrainment in the stream of Water discharged from the nozzle 35, the work of entrainment being greatly decreased by the reduction in the volume of gases necessary to be handled by the ejector. The heat extracted from the gases in their passage through the chamber 21 is utilized to generate a motive fluid, as for example, steam, which may be withdrawn through pipe 28 for any desired use. A part of the motive fluid is led to the turbine 41 which drives the centrifugal pump 33 for supplying water to the ejector at high velocity. The use of steam for furnishing power to an auxiliary engine to assist the main engine 10 may also be desirable in certain installations, in which, should the internal combustion engine 10 break down, the auxiliary steam engine may be the sole source of motive power. Provision is therefore made for supplying an auxiliary source of heat to the chamber 21 under which conditions the. products of combustion from the burner 44 are drawn through the tubes 27 and evacuated by the ejector, roviding, in effect, an induced-draft, gasred furnace. the efliciency of which compares favorably with small steam generator'installations.

It may, in certain installations, be desirable to exhaust the gases directly from the cylinder of the internal combustion engine to the ejector. In Fig. 2 I have illustrated such an arrangement. Gases from the engine 10 are conveyed by the manifold.

directly to the ejector 30, where they are entrained by a jet of water from the nozzle '35 and discharged through the diffuser 37 and port 38.

The apparatus illustrated in Fig. 2 serves to efiect the scavenging of the cylinder 1() in the same manner as described above in relation to Fig. 1. The stream of water discharged by the nozzle 35 through the ejector 30 operates to maintain a high vacuum within the exhaust manifold 20. After the first rush of 'gases from the cylinder into the manifold, which causes the pressure there-, in to momentarily rise, air at atmos heric pressure is forced into the cylinder, ue to .the pressure differences at the inlet and outlet ports, and sweeps out the remainin burned gases, leaving the cylinder filled with pure air for a succeedingcharge.

Water is es ecially efi'ective'as a motive fluid for the. e ection of the burned gases of an internal combustion engine since it causes the condensation of the condensable portion of the exhaust gases, in which there is a high per cent of condensable vapor present, and thereby reduces the work of compression of the gases which necessarily takes place when vacuous conditions are maintained in the exhaust passages of the engine.

While I have shown my invention in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that, it is not so limited, but is susceptible of various other changes and modifications, without departing from the spirit thereof, and I desire, therefore, that only such limitations shall be placed thereuponas are imposed by the prior art or'as-are specifically set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an internal combustion engine, having a cylinder with air inlet and exhaustports, a conduit receiving the burned gases from the exhaust port, a low-pressure chamgenerator within said chamber, arranged to ber communicating with said conduit, a absorb heat from the hot combustion gases, steam generator within said chamber, an a supplemental heating.nieans within said ejector communicating with said chamber chamber, an ejector communicating with I for maintaining therein a sub-atmospheric said chamber for maintaining therein a subpressure, and means including an engine opatmospheric pressure, and means including erated by steam from the generator and a an engine operated by steam from the genpump driven by the engine for supplying a erator and a pump driven by the engine for stream of rapidly flowing water to said supplying a stream of rapidly flowing water I. ejector to entrain and discharge the burned to said ejector to entrain and discharge the gases. burned gases.

2. In an internal combustion en ine, hav- In testimony whereof, I have hereunto ing a cylinder with air inlet an exhaust subscribed my name this 29th day of March, ports, a conduit receiving the burned gases 1924. 16 from the exhaust port, a low-pressure cham- 7 her communica ing with said conduit, a steam HERBERT T. HERB. 

